Joint for railroad-rails



(No Model.)

J. M. ADAMS.

JOINT FOR RAILROAD RAILS. No. 255,905. Patented Apr. 4,1882.

WITNESSES 2 INVENTOR w 2mm FY Jim ATTORNEYS}.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES MONROE ADAMS, OF STANBERRY, MISSOURI.

JOINT FOR RAILROAD-RAILS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 255,905, dated April 4, 1882. Application filed December 28, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JAMES M. ADAMS, of Stanberry, in the county of Gentry and State of Missouri, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Joints for Railroad-Rails, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to that class of railroadrail joints known as splice or lapjoints; and it consists principally in the peculiar manner of scarfing the tread of the rails, whereby all pounding and battering at the joint is overcome and ample room is given for expan sion and contraction without lateral displacement of the laps of the rails.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure l is a plan view of my improved joint. Fig. 2 is an elevation of one-half of the joint, as indicated by the line at x of- Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a sectional plan taken on the line pg of Fig. 4. Fig. 4 is a cross-section taken on the line 22 of Fig. 2, and Fig. 5 is a similar view taken on the line 2 z of Fig. 2.

A A represent the rails, which are correspondingly scarfed to form the diagonal laps or splices B B. The faces of the laps are correspondingly scalloped, or formed with the cuts 12 b, which are diagonal to the line of the length of the rails and the cuts 6 c, which are parallel therewith, which latter are the contact-faces of the joint, and which are of a length greater than the maximum movement of the rails due to expansion and contraction. By this construction the relative position of the laps will not be changed, so as to loosen or tighten the joint by the movement of the rails, as would be the case it the faces were plain, diagonal, or wedge-shaped faces. The webs of the rails are formed with the square cut-away places a (which, when the rails are brought together, form a mortise,) with the mortises c c, and the edges of the base of the rails are cut away and chamfered back, as shown clearly atffin Fig. 4, to form a recess and a hearing or lip for the claws dd of the lower edges of the fish-plates as clearly shown in said D D" to catch over,

Fig. 4. The fish-plates are formed upon their inner faces with the tenons g g, which, when the plates are in place, enter the mortises c and cut-away places a of the rails, as shown in Fig. 3. These tenons are made to fit the mortises vertically, but are made of less length than the length of the mortises, thus leaving room for the rails to move longitudinally to accommodate contraction and expansion, and the tenons are of such length relative to thethickness of the web of the rails that they do not meet when the plates are screwed together by the screw-bolts O O.

The fish-plate D has the plain perforations t, which pass through the center of the tenons g, while'the perforations 7: through the fish-plate D (which also pass through the center of, its tenons g) are screwthreaded for the reception of the threaded portion of the bolts, thus doing away with the use of separate nuts for the bolts.

Between the heads of the bolts and the fishplates are placed upon the bolts the box-washers J, which are provided with the layers j, of wood, leather, rubber, or similar material, which form a cushion for the bolts and accommodate the lateral expansion and contraction of the rails withoutdangerof breakage, and they serve to always maintain a tight joint, owing to the elasticity of the packing.

To prevent all danger of the bolts turning and getting loose, I lock the box-washers by means of the short pieces of wire k,which are placed between the washers and the fish-plates and rest in the groove-m. in said plates and the grooves 12, formed in the face of the washers. After the bolts have been screwed up firmly the ends of the wires are to be bent outward from the plates, as shown in Fig. 2.

It will be observed that by this construction of joint all pounding ot the car-wheels and the consequent battering of the joints is overcome by the laps of thejoint, as the wheels at the time of passing the joints do not pass abruptly from one rail to the other, as in the old style ofjoint, but atthe instant of passing the joint rest upon both rails. It will also be observed that the laps of the rails are supported in such manner by the fish-plates that thejoint is made as strong as any intermediate part of the rails. Besides, the movement of the rails due to expansion and contraction is perfectly provided for, so that the joint will not be in any manner atfected thereby.

I am aware that fish-plates having angular tongues fitting recesses in the rails have been held by bolts passing through said tongues and recesses; also, that a chair and cheek-bar have been so combined as to prevent the rails from yieldingin a vertical or lateral direction: also, thatadouble cheek-bar has been combined with rails, so as to transfer the friction from the edge of the rail to a projection on the chair or cheek-bar; but

What I claim as new is 1. The laps or splices B B of the rails, scalloped so as to form the straight portions e c and the diagonal portions 1) 12, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. The fish-plates D D,formed with the claws d, in combination with the'rails formed with the lipsff, substantially as described.

3. The rails formed with the laps B B, the inortises c, and slots or cut-away places a, and the lips f, in combination with the fish-plates formed with claws d and the tenons g and g, substantially as and forthe purposes described.

JAMES MONROE ADAMS.

Witnesses:

J AS. R. KAY, GEO. W. SHQEMAKER. 

